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File Sharing Ruled Legal In Spain
stupid_is writes "As a follow-up to a previous discussion a judge in Spain has ruled that under Spanish law a person who downloads music for personal use can not be punished or branded a criminal. This seems to be a teeny bit clearer than the first article, which points out that downloading is a civil, and not criminal, offense for individuals. The Spanish recording industry federation Promusicae is predictably a bit peeved, and says it will appeal against the decision." From the article: "The state prosecutor's office and two music distribution associations had sought a two year sentence against the man, who downloaded songs and then allegedly offered them on a CD through email and chat rooms. However, there was no direct proof he made money from selling the CDs. Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopéz Aguilar says Spain is drafting a new law to abolish the existing right to private copies of material. Due to different regulatory regimes in Europe, the proceedings against file sharers differ greatly in each country. However, most European judges tend to take a harder stance on file sharing. Twenty two people in Finland were fined €427,000 last week for illegally sharing movies, music, games and software, while courts in Sweden also fined two men who had downloaded movies and music for personal use."
There were 21 persons who are paying in all that 427000 EUR. So it's about 20 000 EUR per person.
And the persons who were sentenced were administrators of the torrent-sharing site, not some guys who just downloaded some songs.
The problem in the world today is communication. Too much communication - Homer Simpson
While I know the parent is fake, and made up, I just caught this one line:
They have fought the War on Drugs with skill, so why not the War on Piracy?
And I have to ask... how well has that War on Drugs turned out?
...I remember borrowing tapes and making copies. I never bought music, I bought blank tapes. If a friend didn't have a song I wanted, I listened for it on the radio and recorded it off that (granted the quality sucked). This is basically the same thing as file sharing. Why were they not tracking down the millions of kids that did this in the 80's?
Do you really need to ask? Widespread copying was a harder task in the 80s. You had to find someone who owned a copy of said music, which meant a local friend. The quality of the copy was degraded, often being quite poor after many iterations of copying. Compare with today, where you can make an exact replica of music from someone on another continent, on nothing more than a whim.
Music companies cared in the 1980s, but piracy was at a nuisance level rather than threatening the entire business model.